History of Malaya : 2000 BC - 1963 AD

Malaya, now the largest component of the Federation of Malaysia occupied the Malay Peninsula, which extends south–southwest from the narrow Isthmus of Kra to Singapore, which was not part of Malaya. There is archaeological evidence of human occupation at least 5,000 years ago, and it is clear that the peninsula was one of the routes by which the prehistoric peoples of Indonesia, Melanesia, and Australia travelled on their way south to their ultimate destinations, and that successive waves of people left some of their number in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula.